Nvidia

As fast as the little schoolboy was when he came to the USA, he stands there in his leather jacket next to the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz: Jensen Huang, the head of the world's most valuable company, Nvidia, listens to the moderator's praise in Berlin with a smile. He no longer has to prove himself. The audience practically sucks in his words, applauding spontaneously as he gives advice during the conversation with Merz. As a technician, he finds memorable analogies: "Electrons will never replace atoms," he says, meaning that production will need machines or cars in the future as well. "But Germany must take the opportunity of the new technology. Build Germany," he calls out with applause. A few days ago, Huang had shown disappointment with Germany in a press interview in London. The country had let itself be dependent. Neither Merz nor he address this in Berlin. Here in Berlin, Huang is optimistic and looks more to the future: "I believe in Germany and its special skills in science and technology." In the past year alone, Nvidia invested almost a billion dollars in Germany. Expert knowledge – a natural resource The expertise accumulated by German engineers over decades is the natural resource of Germany. "Import the new technology to use it," he advised, "but do not export the data." Merz also called for the medium-sized enterprises in particular to open up to the new technology, "that is so crucial for the future of Germany," he said. However, this also requires investment, and that is what was the focus of the investor conference, which will continue the next day with the Chancellor and some cabinet colleagues. Hardly anyone doubts that too little is invested in Germany. Nor do they doubt that this investment stagnation is enormous. The Made for Germany economic initiative estimates up to four trillion euros for this. This comes from a report presented in Berlin on Monday. The association of large German companies wants to help ensure that this amount can flow into future fields by 2035. This will mainly concern artificial intelligence in industry, the restructuring of industry along with future technologies, resilient energy systems, core infrastructure, as well as security and defense. "Germany has enormous potential," said Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank. However, the German location has recently found it rather difficult to attract investment: the Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche, for example, put all future investments in Germany in question due to the federal government's austerity policy in healthcare. Companies complain almost verbatim about too much bureaucracy, high taxes and energy prices, as well as a lack of reforms. The state cannot manage it alone That is why Germany has slipped in location rankings in recent years. And the goal of greater digital independence for Germany is, according to a study, further away than ever. In Berlin, large housing corporations could be expropriated if a red-green-red government were to come to power – this is not necessarily a signal that one wants to send to investors either. Deutsche Bank CEO Sewing said that the state cannot cover the investment needs alone. There is enough private capital, but it must be mobilized. Investors need reliability and speed. The federal government wants to promote the development of AI-driven robots through cooperation with Nvidia. The economic and research ministries have signed a corresponding declaration of intent with the US chip company, the federal government announced on Monday at the investor conference. "The goal is to bring industrial AI into widespread use systematically and to establish a highly advanced AI ecosystem in Europe." Nvidia will expand its cooperation with German partners for this, it was further said. The company will make its AI models accessible not only to large industries but also to small and medium-sized enterprises and research institutions in the future. The merger of classical engineering knowledge with modern technology should secure Germany's competitiveness and technological sovereignty.